The Storm’s first-round draft pick will be determined at Sunday’s WNBA Draft Lottery 2024
SEATTLE — The Seattle Storm finds out which pick it will have in April’s 2024 WNBA Draft when the league hosts the WNBA Draft Lottery 2024 on Sunday, Dec. 10. The 30-minute draft lottery special will be broadcast on ESPN at 1:30 p.m. PT between the final two games of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase tripleheader in Uncasville, Connecticut, featuring #2 UCLA vs #20 Florida State, #11 Utah vs. #1 South Carolina, and #24 North Carolina vs. #17 UConn.
Storm fans are invited to watch the ESPN tripleheader and view the draft lottery at the team’s official viewing party presented by Carter Subaru and hosted by the Rough & Tumble Pub located at the historic Henry Whyte building in Old Ballard (5309 22nd Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107). Brunch begins at 10:00 am with all three games of the ESPN tripleheader available to watch throughout the pub. Rough & Tumble Pub (roughandtumblepub.com), Seattle’s home for women’s sports, features a unique menu highlighting Seattle’s women’s sports stars including The Breakfast Sami, the Gold Mamba Nachos, the Mersladezz Salad, the Bird, the Buzzer Beater cocktail, and more.
The Storm is one of four teams vying for the top pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft along with the Indiana Fever, Los Angeles Sparks, and Phoenix Mercury. The draft is currently scheduled to take place on Monday, April 15. The lottery odds are based on the cumulative records of the last two seasons with Indiana holding the best odds to get the top pick at 44.2%, followed by Phoenix at 27.6%, Los Angeles at 17.8% and Seattle at 10.4%.
Despite having long odds, Seattle has historically had success in draft lottery. Seattle has entered the draft lottery four times prior to this year (2002, 2004, 2015, and 2016), and has only had the best overall odds to win in 2016. However, in three of those four seasons, the Storm still got the No. 1 overall pick (2002, 2015, 2016), selecting Sue Bird (2002), Jewell Loyd (2015) and Breanna Stewart (2016) with the top pick. The lone time Seattle failed to secure the No. 1 pick was in 2004 when the team ended up with the No. 6 overall pick. But even then, it worked out well for the Storm, who traded that pick to Minnesota for Janell Burse and Sheri Sam, key pieces to winning the franchise’s first WNBA Championship later that year.
Of note, the Storm can only get the No. 1, No. 2, or No. 4 overall pick, but cannot end up with the No. 3 pick. In the drawing, 14 balls numbered 1-14 will be placed in a lottery machine and mixed. Four balls will be drawn to determine a four-digit combination. The team assigned that four-ball combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The four balls will then be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated to determine the second pick. After that, the two teams remaining are allocated the final two spots based on their cumulative two-year record, meaning if the Storm does not get the first or second pick, they would end up selecting fourth.
Season tickets, Storm Mini Plans, and Group Experiences are available for the 2024 season while single game tickets will go on sale in the spring. For more info, visit http://stormbasketball.com, or call 206-217-WNBA (9622).
—— StormBasketball.com ——